Thoughts on libraries and librarianship

TriLUG, open source software, and satisfaction

This is posting about TriLUG, open source software, and satisfaction for doing a job well-done.

A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away, I lived in Raleigh (North Carolina), and a fledgling community was growing called the Triangle Linux User’s Group (TriLUG). I participated in a few of their meetings. While I was interested in open source software, I was not so interested in Linux. My interests were more along the lines of the application stack, not necessarily systems administration nor Internet networking.

I gave a presentation to the User’s Group on the combined use of PHP and MySQL — “Smart HTML pages with PHP“. Because of this I was recruited to write a Web-based membership application. Since flattery will get you everywhere with me, I was happy to do it. After a couple of weeks, the application was put into place and seemed to function correctly. That was a bit more than ten years ago, probably during the Spring of 2001.

The other day I got an automated email message from the User’s Group. The author of the message wanted to know if I wanted to continue my membership? I replied how that was not necessary since I had long since moved away to northern Indiana.

I then got to wondering whether or not the message I received had been sent by my application. It was a long shot, but I enquired anyway. Sure enough, I got a response from Jeff Schornick, a TriLUG board member, who told me “Yes, your application was the tool that had been used.” How satisfying! How wonderful to know that something I wrote more than ten years ago was still working.

Just as importantly, Jeff wanted to know about open source licensing. I had not explicitly licensed the software, something that I only learned was necessary from Dan Chudnov later. After a bit of back and forth, the original source code was supplemented with the GNU Public License, packaged up, and distributed from a Git repository. Over the years the User’s Group had modified it to overcome a few usability issues, and they wanted to distribute the source code using the most legitimate means possible.

This experience was extremely enriching. I originally offered my skills, and they returned benefits to the community greater than the expense of my time. The community then came back to me because they wanted to express their appreciation and give credit where credit was due.

Open source software not necessarily about computer technology. It is just as much, if not more, about people and the communities they form.